Tara's Bridal Shower

This past weekend we celebrated with my brother's fiance, Tara. We had a bridal shower and bachelorette party. It was a lot of fun to spend the day celebrating with her and be able to meet all of her friends and family. I made the cake for her shower, and had a lot of fun making it. It only needed to serve 25 to 30 people, but I ended up making enough cake for about 90! I just wanted to make it three tiered, so there were lots of leftovers. The color of their wedding is the purple color i used on the cake and they are having orchids in the wedding. Tara made a wonderful suggestion for the cake flavor and filling (that I believe they are having as their wedding cake). I made white cake with a lemon mousse and raspberry preserve. It was a really good combination of flavors!

At the shower they had a champagne bar, where you could make your own champagne drinks. They had champagne flutes out, with different recipes to follow. This was such a cute idea! They had all different mixers; orange juice, a peach puree, strawberry mixer, pomegranate juice, pineapple juice, and other fun things to add.

Champagne Cocktails

Frozen Champagne

Ingredients:

• 4 scoops lemon sorbet
  
• 2 ounces chilled vodka, citrus vodka or limoncello (Italian lemon liqueur)
• 2 ounces prosecco or other sparkling wine or Champagne
• 2 sprigs fresh mint

Directions:

Blend lemon sorbet on low speed and pour in vodka or lemon liqueur in a slow stream. Add prosecco or Champagne. Pour cocktails into a chilled martini glass and serve, garnished with a sprig of mint.

Recipe by Rachel Ray

White Nectarine and Raspberry Champagne Floats

Ingredients:

• 3 very ripe white nectarines, halved, pitted and cut into eighths
• 1/2 pint fresh raspberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 2 pints vanilla ice cream
• 1 bottle chilled Champagne, Prosecco, or sparkling wine
• 1/4 cup Chambord
• Mint sprigs, for garnish

Directions:

Combine nectarine slices, raspberries and sugar in a small bowl and mash with a fork.

Add scoops of ice cream to 4 large glasses and divide most of the nectarine and raspberry puree among the glasses. Top each with a few more scoops of ice cream then the remaining puree. Fill the glasses to the top with the prosecco and drizzle each with some of the Chambord. Garnish with mint sprigs.

 Recipe by Bobby Flay